Chapter 242: End of the Jungle Hunt

Austrian Empire, Venice Port.

After several months of traveling, Franz finally set foot on the land he had not seen for a long time. The feeling of returning home was like being reborn.

Although he had made various preparations before sailing, he found himself too naive when he really arrived at the vast ocean, not to mention the scorching weather in West Africa.

Traveling in the 19th century was much harder than he had imagined, and it was also full of dangers and challenges.

Although there were several battles of different scales and even full-scale armed conflicts along the way, only 17 people on the Austrian side died in the war, while the number of people who died from storms, heat stroke, accidents, and diseases was as high as 450.

Most of the dead were colonists who went to sea for the first time. Some of them suffered from seasickness during the voyage and were relatively weak and had to endure the torment of wind and waves. In addition, they were not used to the local climate after arriving in the colony.

Franz's body was very strong due to long-term exercise, and he didn't have to work for a long time, but even so he was still tortured by the wind and waves at sea, and even had symptoms such as nausea and vomiting several times.

Friedrich said that this was all normal, and he would get used to it after vomiting.

The sound of the Great Salt Cedar seemed to have no feeling at all, and the maritime nation was really terrible.

Venice is known as the "Pearl of the Adriatic Sea", the ancient world trade center, the leader of the Mediterranean, and once upon a time it was the gathering place of the Crusaders on the Eastern Expedition.

With the opening of new routes, the commercial center of Europe shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and the city inevitably declined.

But at this time Franz reopened the door to maritime trade, allowing those old and young people who missed the past glory to see hope again.

Mexico, Ottoman, Egypt, Tripoli, West Africa (Guinea, Ivory Coast, Togo, Cameroon, Congo, Namibia), Austria's foreign trade partners are increasing rapidly.

In addition, trade between Austria and Brazil is also increasing rapidly, whether it is cotton, rubber, or coffee. (Brazil became the world's largest coffee producer in 1852)

At the same time, Austria's exported rubber shoes are widely praised in Brazil. Although the price is four times that sold to the military, it seems nothing in the eyes of the wealthy Brazilians.

Franz also considered whether Brazilians would build their own vulcanized rubber factories, produce their own rubber shoes, or increase the export price of rubber.

It's just that this country seems to be used to lying down, and they have no strong interest in building factories. Later, Franz roughly read the national conditions of Brazil at that time and found that they not only lacked a supporting industrial system, but also lacked labor.

The labor force here is not just a simple manual laborer, there are no relevant technicians, and the educated are not willing to work in factories. As for the slaves on the plantations, even if the whip is broken, they can't learn the relevant knowledge.

The Brazilians proposed a plan that made Franz laugh and cry. They would provide rubber to Austria, but the condition was that Austria would provide rubber shoes and tires (solid) of the same price.

Franz did not expect that he would have to trade with people in the ancient barter trade after returning to Europe after teaching the natives in Africa how to use money as a general equivalent.

At this time, Brazil was in civil strife and they needed a lot of weapons and equipment. Of course, Franz would not be as hypocritical as France and directly express his willingness to sell weapons to them without any cover-up. In fact, it was just verbal talk.

In the early days of the rebellion, the rebels defeated the Brazilian government forces step by step, and even the mercenaries joined the other side after being captured.

At that time, the great powers, including the United States, were holding a wait-and-see attitude towards the Brazilian civil war. They believed that a divided Brazil was more in line with the interests of the world, and some of the great powers even secretly supported its separatist forces.

Brazil's religious power was strong. At first, it asked for help from France and Austria, which were also Catholic countries. France responded coldly, and Metternich also said that he could not help.

The main reason is that this South American country only gained independence from Portugal in 1822. At that time, most of the European powers did not recognize this country. They felt that the country's political situation was unstable and would eventually split.

As a time traveler, Franz knew that Brazil won in the end and the separatist forces lost, which was enough.

Franz sent Archbishop Rauscher, an old charlatan who still had a high status in their circle. With the help of Archbishop Rauscher's series of matchmaking, Brazilians were able to exchange their crops for weapons and even use future harvests as collateral for loans.

Many Brazilian officials were moved to tears on the spot, and the Brazilian priests who came with the team sang praises for him. Franz also specifically asked Archbishop Rauscher to remind the Brazilians that there was a guy named Garibaldi among the rebels who was very dangerous.

In fact, Franz still underestimated Garibaldi. He had already made a name for himself in the early days of the war and won one miraculous victory after another in the battle against the Brazilian government forces.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the poor command of the Brazilian government army, such as their mindless operation of sending cavalry into the rainforest to chase guerrillas. This kind of outrageous common sense mistake is usually not made by anyone.

However, this inadvertently made the Brazilian charlatans admire Archbishop Rauscher even more. He did not take credit for it, but instead shook off all his "miracles" for Archduke Franz.

The charlatans were doing this, so they naturally would not believe it, but in order to please the big guys, they could only let it go. Although the priests did not believe it, the Brazilian officials remembered Franz's name firmly.

Due to Franz's intervention, the Austrian Empire joined the German Customs Union, then established the Apennine Customs Union, and now opened foreign trade.

All this is to extend the life of Venice. The people here seem to have seen the glory of the past, so the Venetians at this time are staunch supporters of the Habsburg royal family.

At the strong request of the locals, Franz and Friedrich will receive the bishop's blessing at St. Martin's Cathedral.

At this time, Franz and Friedrich have changed to a small steamship, shuttling between the city's rivers to receive blessings from the Venetians.

Franz's trip to West Africa, under the propaganda of the Austrian imperial government, has become a great victory after another, and its influence is comparable to the "Crusades".

The tone of the propaganda is as follows: Archduke Franz led the army to rescue Catholic compatriots threatened by indigenous people in Africa, and defeated the evil chiefs, bringing God's gospel and civilization to those lands

After the blessing ceremony, there was another grand parade.

After all this was over, Franz had collapsed in the palace in Venice.

Some corners of the European continent.

"Damn those stupid natives, can they only brag? We provided them with accurate information and even created conditions for assassination for them. And those damn guys will only respond to us with one defeat after another?"

"The Austrians occupied colonies too quickly, and we must think of some ways to prevent them from continuing to expand their colonies."

"Austria and France are competing for colonies, which is in our interests, or we should help them. For example, add fuel to the fire"